NEWSAshley Judd Reveals She 'Made Amends' With Her Rapist: 'We Had A Restorative-Justice Conversation'
Ashley Judd candidly revealed she sought out the man who raped her in 1999 while discussing the different paths to recovery after sexual assault.
The High Crimes actress stated that at the time of her attack, she was an "empowered, adult feminist woman" who stated her clear boundaries.
"That this could happen under these circumstances was unconscionable [and] unforeseen," she admitted.
More than two decades after the assault, Judd shared that she attempted to find him as a part of her own, personal healing process, and she was able to make contact with him easily.
"To make a long story short, we ended up in rocking chairs sitting by a creek together," she noted of their meeting. "And I said, ‘I’m very interested in hearing the story you’ve carried all these years.’ And we had a restorative-justice conversation about that."
Judd, who describes herself as a three-time rape survivor, explained that being sexually assaulted can result in a feeling of grief and loss. "One loses safety," she added. "I lost a sense of trust."
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She confessed she felt it was necessary for her to tell this particular story because everyone has different ways of healing from that type of grief. "It's important to remind listeners that I didn't need anything from him, and it was just gravy that he made his amends and expressed his deep remorse, because healing from grief is an inside job," she added.
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This isn't the first time Judd has spoken candidly about her experiences with sexual assault and finding her path to healing. As OK! previously reported, while attending the Women in the World summit in New York in April 2019, the actress opened up on her decision to end a pregnancy after she was raped.
"I’m very thankful I was able to access safe and legal abortion," she told the audience. "Because the rapist, who is a Kentuckian, as am I, and I reside in Tennessee, has paternity rights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I would’ve had to co-parent with my rapist."
"Having safe access to abortion was personally important to me and, as I said earlier, democracy starts with our skin," she continued. “We’re not supposed to regulate what we choose to do with our insides."
The Healing with David Kessler podcast was first to break the story of Judd's meeting with her rapist.
